Pontiac schools lose battle over No Child Left Behind

Shawn D. Lewis / The Detroit News

Pontiac -- The Pontiac Public School District lost the latest round in a lawsuit it filed against the No Child Left Behind Act.

The suit, which claimed the law, a U.S. Act of Congress for education reform, is an "unfunded mandate," ended in a deadlocked 8-8 decision and was dismissed by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The judges deliberated for 10 months on the case. The district said the act requires school districts to spend their own money to comply with the provisions.

The Pontiac school district was the lead plaintiff, which included districts in Texas and Vermont, filing the suit against the secretary of the Department of Education. The department did not return phone calls for comment.

The district has no choice but to comply with the ruling, which means to continue using state dollars to fund the federal programs under the act. But the district's lawyer said he is disappointed.

"It's very unusual for the Court of Appeals to come back with an 8-8 ruling, which gives merit to the arguments we're putting forth, and makes you wonder how the courts will interpret NCLB in the future," said George Pitchford, general counsel for the Pontiac School District.

The act requires all public schools to provide standardized tests annually to all students. Scores determine whether the school is doing its job. If test scores don't improve, steps are taken to bring the scores up. But some argue that the push for quality teachers and more professional development costs extra money, not reimbursed by federal funding.

The district's outside counsel also expressed frustration.

"This decision is the latest in the Pontiac district's attempt to establish as a matter of law that schools don't have to provide services that are not paid for," said Dennis R. Pollard of the Thrun Law Firm PC in Bloomfield Hills. "The act says basically, do everything we say regardless of if you don't have enough money to pay for it."